Cohort building through active learning in lectures

Principles guiding active learning in lectures:

  • Establish and communicate learning goals.
  • Cut down on the amount of content covered.
  • Rather than conveying information, focus on analysing issues or problems.
  • Use active learning strategies (examples below). Aim for activities that promote higher order thinking such as - recalling, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating, presenting, synthesising and verbalising concepts.
  • Aim to do something new at least every 20 minutes.

How to implement active learning in your lecture

Establishing a culture for active learning

Strategies for active learning in lectures should be planned prior to and set up from the start of the teaching period. Some strategies that can assist in setting up a culture conducive to active learning are:

Explicit expectations on activities

Set expectations that lectures will be active, and that you will be asking students to engage with activities as well as with each other. If consistently using a particular strategy, explain or demonstrate that strategy including any technologies you plan to use. Communicate the level of preparation you are expecting students to bring to the lecture. If prior reading or preparative work is required, outline to students the types of activities that will relate to that reading or work.

Provide options

Let students know that accessibility is important to you, and that you want to provide accessible alternatives for students who need them. Wherever possible, give students options on which tools to use and on how to engage. For example, for a verbal activity, provide students with a written alternative, such as responding in a Word document, which can be helpful for students with a variety of hearing and speech impairments, as well as some neurodivergent students who communicate better textually. Similarly, for a written activity, allow students who wish to participate orally to share verbally instead, which can be helpful for students with visual impairments, as well as students with some kinds of dyslexia. Offering these kinds of options up front signals to students that you care about access needs.

Start with low risk activities

Start with something that allows students to be successful and is low-stakes - particularly if using technology that is unfamiliar. Activities that test complex knowledge, show knowledge gaps or show the student to be wrong are not good places to start.

Introductions and ice-breakers activities

Greeting students as they enter the lecture can build relationships and relatability. Starting the lecture with a roadmap of ‘where we’ve been’, ‘what’s today’, ‘where we are headed’ can be helpful. At the beginning of semester novelty ice-breakers can help you and students connect as humans and get to know each other.

Starting your lecture

It is worth spending some time thinking about how you are going to capture students’ attention and focus them in the first 5 minutes of a lecture. This initial period is the golden moment to grab students’ attention and focus - open boldly and ensure that you are well organised. Possible activities for first 5 minutes include:

Communicate goals

Instead of simply telling students the goals of the lecture, open with questions that the students need to be able to answer by the end of the lecture. Ensure that questions generate students’ interest in what you are about to present. One way to do this is to frame the question in a provocative way or create wonder.

Retrieval practice

Start the lecture by asking students to summarise the key points from the last session or prework. You could use Poll Everywhere with multiple choice questions or free text responses. You can also use this technique during the lecture, have students spend 1 minute writing down what they can remember from the material you just covered and then 2-3 minutes discuss issues or misunderstandings with the people near them. This practice forces students to retrieve information from memory which has many benefits for learning.

Questions related to pre-work

Advise students you will be asking them to Think-pair-share with someone next to them to explain the key concepts from the reading or pre-work. Groups can then volunteer their understanding of these concepts to the class. You can then confirm their understanding or correct any misconceptions.

Activities to encourage student interaction

Throughout the lecture include active learning activities at least every 15 minutes. Example active learning activities include:

Think-pair-share

This strategy is low-risk and easy to use and is very effective at quickly making your lecture more interactive. Questions are more effective if they require higher order thinking such as analysing or applying. Give students 1 minute to write a response, i.e. 'Think'. The 'Pair' component requires that the students discuss their responses in pairs for two minutes, critically considering each other’s responses. Finally, ask for one or two students responses t othe activity, handing around a microphone. This sharing of understanding deepens the students’ connections with the content.

Pause procedure

Regular pauses during your lecture to allow students to review and discuss notes helps students consolidate learnings and stay organised. Regular pauses in your lecture restore student’s attention which is essential for effective learning.

Demonstrations

Including demonstrations is an engaging technique for lectures. Demonstrations are enhanced if you first get students to make a prediction of outcomes and briefly discuss in pairs. After the demonstration, ask them to reflect on results and their prediction and clarify as needed. This activity tests misconceptions and understanding.

Case study centred lectures

Finding real world case studies to support content delivered engages students and helps apply knowledge to real-world situations.

Role playing

Role playing can involve the lecturer role playing a scenario and students commenting and reflecting, or alternately it can involve students’ role playing. Even in large lectures, students can role play scenarios such as responding to interview questions, defending an idea they have just been taught, or being a professional in the discipline responding to client questions. Role playing allows students' to embody the knowledge presented providing a deeper learning experience. The activity can be reflected up and discussed.

Competition poll

Poll Everywhere competitions allow you to ask a series of questions and track a leader-board to add an element of friendly competition to check understanding.

Engagement through the presentation component

When delivering the presentation component of your lecture, the ideas below can assist with engagement:

  • Storytelling
  • Excerpts from movies
  • Short video/audio/ animations (ensure Lecture Capture is paused to prevent copyright breech and you provide expectations about why they are engaging with the content and how best to engage.)
  • Using objects
  • Guest speakers
  • Connecting content to current events
  • When talking to slides, use the annotation tools to annotate on the slides to make the presentation more visually changing.

Ending the lecture

Using the last 5 minutes thoughtfully to enhance learning instead of wrapping up in a hurry or shouting out a few quick reminders can aid the effectiveness of the active lecture for learning. Applying a known teaching and learning strategy in the last five minutes can make a difference over a semester. Possible activities for the last 5 minutes include:

Closing connections

To allow students to make connections between what was presented and their lives, finish the lecture with a question such as “identify five ways in which the lecture material applies to your world”. Students can write the answers in a collaborative document or a free text Poll Everywhere question.

Minute paper

The 'minute paper' technique requires students to spend 1-2 minutes at the end of the lecture writing down a response to the following questions: What was the most important thing you learned today? What questions remain in your mind? Ask students to submit their responses online or in person to you as they leave the lecture. This technique allows students to articulate and consider newly formed connections.

The metacognitive five

Students can be poor assessors of their own understanding of a topic or effective strategies for study. Use the last 5 minutes to ask students to spend 5 minutes writing down how they can best prepare for their next assessment.

Close the loop

If you used a strategy to pose a question that they need to be able to respond to by the end of the lecture; revisit the question at the end of the lecture and discuss the new knowledge and understanding.

May not be suitable for very large cohorts.

LMS tools that enable active learning activities in your lecture

Important: Not all tools are accessible to all students. Actively encourage students to seek out the teaching staff if any tool is inaccessible to them.

Resources

Request support from Teaching and Learning Innovation

Pedagogical tags

  • Active learning
  • Cohort building
  • Cohort development
  • Collaboration
  • Discussions
  • Engagement
  • Lectures

This page was last updated on 23 Apr 2026.

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